Up-cycling is the process of converting discarded materials into useful products to reduce waste and help protect the environment

Up-cycled Notebook Workshop Key Stage 1-4

Small steps can add up to big changes. So let’s all learn to reduce our ecological footprint and help maximise our earth’s precious resources.

During this workshop we discuss a range of green issues in the home, at school, and in a global context. With the aid of an interactive presentation, we visit an award-winning building called ‘Earthship’ which is powered by renewable energy and is built from recycled materials.

After exploring some of the key issues involved, we examine a range of a diverse range of recycled and up-cycled objects and materials from around the world. We then get hands on and make a visually unique up-cycled notebook from old maps paper and card.

This workshop is also available as an online option. Please get in touch for further details.

In this workshop we explore a number of topics and themes:

  • PSHE
  • STEM
  • Design Technology
  • WOW Day!
  • Science Week
  • Eco Week
  • Off-timetable Days
  • Waste
  • Renewable Energy
  • Climate Change
  • Recycling
  • Pollution
  • Citizenship
  • Sustainability
  • Eco School Awards
  • Human Impact
  • Materials
  • Science
  • Litter

This workshop lasts from 45 minutes to an hour with up to 30 pupils in each class. At the end of the session everyone will take a notebook home to enjoy.

Eco Ideas Booklet – Key Stage 3-5

The technological revolution has changed how we live and communicate, but at the same time has created new challenges environmentally. This workshop explores the mounting problem of electronic waste. When electronic devices are disposed of, the non-biodegradable components that make up our phones, fridges, televisions, hairdryers and laptops, leave a toxic footprint and go on to accumulate in the environment, soil, air, water and living things. Currently only 13% of our electronic waste is being recycled.

In this workshop participants use a redundant retro disket and a wide range of recycled papers to make an Eco Ideas Booklet for their own personal projects. During the session students are free to select from materials provided to craft the pages of a booklet unique to them, which expresses their personal inspirations and influences. The potential pages inside range from plain, coloured, graphic, textured material pieces, photos and fold outs which each maker selects to reflect their own design ideas. The finished booklet can be used as a diary, travel journal, sketch book or for capturing other moments of creativity and inventiveness.

By making the Eco Ideas Booklet pupils will be inspired to think about using refurbished devices and know at the end of the technology’s useful life, they can donate or recycle their electronics, rather than seeing them as disposable. To bring the subject to life in the classroom, we will examine a range of expired storage formats, including tapes, mini disks, old mobile phones and VHS tapes.

This workshop is also available as an online option. Please get in touch for further details.

In this workshop we explore a number of topics and themes:

 

  • Waste
  • Renewable Energy
  • Climate Change
  • Recycling
  • Pollution
  • Citizenship
  • Sustainability
  • Eco School Awards
  • Human Impact
  • Materials
  • Science
  • PSHE
  • STEM
  • Design Technology
  • WOW Day!
  • Science Week
  • Eco Week
  • Off-timetable Days

This workshop lasts from 30 minutes to an hour with up to 35 pupils in each class. At the end of the session everyone will take an Eco Ideas Booklet home to enjoy.

Up-cycled Juice Carton Wallet Workshop Key Stage 1-4

Small steps can add up to big changes. So let’s all learn to reduce our ecological footprint and help maximise our earth’s precious resources.

We open up a dialogue with the pupils to raise awareness on green issues coming up every day at home, in their school and out in the wider world. We will look at a variety of colourful up–cycled objects made from different materials followed by a Q&A session.

Making use of redundant materials challenges us to create new and useful objects from what we formerly regarded as rubbish. Our up-cycling workshop uses a Tetra Pac juice carton to created a wallet to demonstrate the transformation of an everyday item. This example shows how discarded cardboard, aluminium and plastic can be used again to create a new object which is both durable and hard wearing. By the end of the session the pupils have learnt that we can all take part in making our world a cleaner and greener place to live.

This workshop is also available as an online option. Please get in touch for further details.

In this workshop we explore a number of topics and themes:

  • Energy
  • Waste
  • Design Technology
  • Climate Change
  • Recycling
  • Pollution
  • Citizenship
  • Sustainability
  • Eco School Awards
  • Human Impact
  • Materials
  • Litter
  • Science
  • Eco week
  • PSHE
  • STEM
  • Science Week
  • Eco Week
  • WOW Day!
  • Off-timetable Days

This workshops lasts 45 minutes to an hour with up to 35 pupils in each class.  This activity is completed by crafting a juice carton wallet which can be taken home.

Litter Fish Workshop Key Stage 1-4

One of the fist subjects pupils mention when it comes to environmental topics is the issue of litter. Clearing up the streets and green spaces in England alone costs £1 billion a year. There are not just direct costs involved with the dropping of litter, the RSPCA receives around 7,000 calls a year regarding animals that have been injured by litter; this includes pets as well as wildlife.
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Firstly, we explore these issues through an interactive presentation on the subject of litter in the UK. We then examine single use plastics and their alternatives ands range of colourful plastics and products.  Each pupil is then invited to decorate a cork fish with colourful recycled scales they have made to bring awareness to the problem of litter in our surroundings. This highlights how we can all play a part in supporting a beautiful and healthy natural environment. The fish create eye-catching artworks which can be taken home or displayed in school. The main aim of this workshops is to raise young people’s awareness of the problem of litter and the impact it has on our natural environment.
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This workshop is also available as an online option. Please get in touch for further details.
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In this workshop we explore a number of topics and themes:
  • PSHE
  • STEM
  • Design Technology
  • Science Week
  • Oceans & Rivers
  • Eco Week
  • Off-timetable Days
  • Waste
  • Litter
  • Natural Materials
  • Recycling
  • Pollution
  • Citizenship
  • Sustainability
  • Eco School Awards
  • Human Impact
  • Science
  • Geography

This workshop lasts from 30 minutes to an hour with up to 35 pupils in each class. 

Materials and their Properties Key Stages 1-2

This workshop enables pupils to investigate a range of materials, their properties and uses. When pupils realise that the special qualities of each material determines how it can be used in the clothes we wear, the everyday objects we use and the elements to build our homes, they can see how much we rely on finding the right material for the right job. The everyday materials that KS1 and 2 will identify and explore in more detail will include: wood, metal, plastic, cork, paper and cotton. They’ll focus on both the sources and eventual uses of these materials.

During the session your pupils will have the opportunity to explore, handle and identify different everyday materials. They will make a recycled notebook where they can add in real samples of some of the materials that have been examined and make notes on their properties.

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This workshop is also available as an online option. Please get in touch for further details.
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In this workshop we explore a number of topics and themes:
  • Design Technology
  • Natural Materials
  • Recycling
  • Hardness
  • Density
  • Translucency
  • Flexibility
  • Softness
  • PSHE
  • STEM
  • WOW Day!
  • Science Week
  • Eco Week
  • Off-timetable Days

This workshops lasts 45 minutes to an hour with up to 35 pupils in each class. This activity is completed by creating a materials recycled notebook which can be taken home to enjoy.

This workshop lasts from 30 minutes to an hour with up to 35 pupils in each class. 

Up-cycled T-Shirt Beach Bag Workshop Key stage 2-4

Thriving on constant change, fast fashion instills a notion that clothes should be cheap and the only way to make this happen is to have the fabric and garments made in countries where wages and regulations can be kept to a minimum.

Fast fashion has caused a dramatic increase in the environmental damage caused by the textile industry during the recent past. This problem will certainly continue into the future unless awareness is raised among consumers with young people being one of the target groups of the fashion industry.

Pupils are encouraged to bring in an old or unloved T-shirt which then can be up-cycled into a beach bag. Spare T-shirts will be brought in on the day for those who forget or can’t find one to up-cycle.

In this workshop we explore a number of topics and themes:

  • Energy
  • Waste
  • Design Technology
  • Recycling
  • Fair Trade
  • Pollution
  • Citizenship
  • Sustainability
  • Eco School Awards
  • Human Impact
  • Materials
  • Science
  • Eco Week
  • PSHE
  • STEM
  • Off-timetable Days

This workshop lasts 60 minutes with up to 35 pupils in each class.  

  • “Working with Green Up Your Act has been a great experience. From the first point of contact Philip was enthusiastic about our school’s 'Go-Green' work and had great ideas to help make it a successful project. The whole school, children and teachers alike, loved the assembly and it left us full of enthusiasm and the children who made up-cycled items had a great time. The up-cyling workshops were accessible to all children and they are using what they made and really proud that they have recycled. We look forward to working with Green Up Your Act again in the future.”
                                                                                                                                                     
    Katherine Lamb Emmaville Primary School - Tyne & Wear
  • "Our Eco day was a thoroughly enjoyable day for all the girls at Streatham and Clapham. We were really lucky to have the company Green Up Your Act come in to carry out some fantastic workshops that encouraged the girls to think about the environment, and supply them with ideas on how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle at home and school. The workshops were educational, hands on and lots of fun! The up-cycled juice cartons were a particular favourite. They were quick and easy to make and certainly sturdy enough to start using at break time for the tuck shop!"
    Kate Webber Streatham and Clapham School for Girls
  • "Thank you so much for today. The kids reported back very positively to their classes and were very proud of their wallets.  I think everyone was suitably impressed by the Earthship assembly ideal and we’re looking forward to telling the whole school about it in our energy assembly, and asking the right questions about our new sustainable school building. We have a lot to think about in school now, and I know what they learned today will give them a confident start to making an energy plan and putting it into action."
    Anna FrendoSustainability Co-ordinator
  • "This workshop was well organised and led effectively by Philip. The introduction included assessing children’s prior knowledge of environmental issues with a focus on where energy comes from. The children enjoyed looking at the products made from recycled materials, and they were very engaged in the group discussion about what they were made from.  The activity was explained clearly step by step at an appropriate level for for various ages. Help and advice were provided through the practice sessions. The children were proud of what they produced, the wallets were the talk of the playground. The children will have a permanent reminder of the lesson. As ECO Co-ordinator I feel I can build on this lesson for next year. The day has been fantastic! Thank you so much."
    Louise HampsonECO CO-ordinator – Swan Ridge Primary School
  • "A huge ‘thank you’ to Philip Hunton (Green Up Your Act) for providing each and every class in our school with an entertaining and educational workshop for our Eco Day. In keeping with our theme of ‘Recycling Waste‘ the younger children enjoyed the ‘Green Shoots’ activity, finding out about the importance of composting and planting a seed in their own recycled pot. The older pupils had a great time learning all about ‘Upcycling’ and produced a recycled notebook to take home. We will certainly be inviting Philip back in the near future."
    Sue QuinnThe Granville Inderpendedt School Sevenoaks
  • "Green up your act helped out at the Dalrymple Primary School  during our Eco Week. Philip delivered an exciting “Green Shoots” workshop to the lower primary ages, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all of the children. He pitched the lesson well to suit the different needs and abilities, and the children especially enjoyed making their own paper pot with a seedling to take home. The upper school enjoyed looking at different objects made from recycled materials and then were guided through a craft activity, where they had a chance to make their own recycled notebook. Philip’s expertise has contributed towards making our Eco Week a huge success! Many thanks to Green Up Your Act."
    Lauren Mc NairDalrymple Primary school – Scotland
Green up your Act
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